Tamarack Resort could take a significant step toward a clearer financial picture Thursday when Idaho officials decide whether to transfer a ski area lease to a new company that emerged after a sheriff's bankruptcy sale last spring, the AP reports. But first a majority of the five-member Idaho Land Board will have to be persuaded at the special meeting that Tamarack can afford about $278,000 annually to use the 2,100 acres of state-owned land the ski area is built on overlooking Cascade Lake. The lease represents one of the state's more lucrative deals, writes AP reporter Keith Ridler; it's far more than the estimated $80,000 annually the land would generate if it reverted to timber harvest.